Sam Short Makes His Mark With 3km Open Water Knockout Australian Title in WA
Paris Olympian and former 400m freestyle world champion Sam Short has made a splash at the Australian Open Water Championships in Bunbury today, winning the newly added the 3km knockout National title, suggesting a sea change was imminent.
The 23-year-old, born into a prominent Australian surf lifesaving family, has ocean swimming in his blood – cutting his teeth in the surf at Maroochydore on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
The Australian surf lifesaving gold medallist and Australian swimming champion, now has an historic open water gold medal to add to an already impressive collection – winning the first ever 3km Australian title.
It followed his first-up bronze behind Kyle Lee and Thomas Raymond in the Olympic distance 10km on Thursday -out-touching prominent open water and surf lifesaving star Bailey Armstrong for the bronze.
In the knockout, swum for the first-time at last year’s World Championships in Singapore, competitors all start with a 1500m swim, after which the slowest swimmers are eliminated.
Survivors then swim 1000m with the slowest swimmers again eliminated with the last ten remaining swimmers completing a final 500m sprint.
Short (Rackley, QLD), one of the fastest 1500m swimmers in the world, with a loping surf swimming style, left noted Australian open water swimmers Raymond (Kawana Waters, QLD) and Lee (North Coast, WA) in his wake.
When asked if he would consider adding open water to his pool program, Short admitted: “Ten kilometres is a long way for me, (so) that, I really enjoyed actually.
“There’s a lot more tactics (involved) and I think it’s good for spectators as well. I’d love to do a lot more of it.
“Also with open water you can do (it) the older you get as well … so plenty of time for open water and this (3km knockout sprint) is way less taxing than a 10km, so doing this before pool could be much more viable.
“You can’t be too tentative at the start or you’ll be eliminated and you don’t want to be too strong at the start otherwise you won’t have as much energy as someone else that was a bit more tactical towards the end.
“It’s definitely very tactical and, I think, pretty exciting.”
Short said his tactics today were to try and win each round so he could pick where he started from on the pontoon.
“I tried to go on the inside … and get out in front … I’m a pool swimmer so I kind of (wanted) a bit more clear water, that was my strategy,” Short said.
“(Dolphins Open Water head coach Fernando Possenti) was keeping me in the loop with some of the tactics some of the other guys might use.
“Obviously, I’ve never really done open water until now and these guys have been doing it for years.
“So (he was) just letting me know what some people could possibly do and pretty much telling me the common things like use my strength and don’t be lazy and drop my stroke rate.
“Five hundred metres seems so short compared to what I’ve done (this week) but it’s still 500m of fast racing, so I had to be pretty disciplined.
“I’ve got one more race to go tomorrow (the 5km). I love that event (3km knockout sprint), I feel like I’m really good for another 500m, so a lot more of that in the future.”
Meanwhile, dual 5km and 10km world champion Johnson, who defended her 10km title on Thursday, was never headed in the women’s 3km knockout with the 28-year-old controlling the pace from her preferred position out in front.
Johnson wasn’t new to the event, winning World Championship bronze in a physical 3km encounter in the waters off Singapore’s Sentosa Island last year.
Sienna Deurloo (Toowoomba Grammar, QLD) touched second after the final hot lap with fellow promising 16-year-old Queenslander Olivia Galea (Chandler) third.
In the mixed 14-15 years 4x1500m relay, National champion Mia Hoo set up her Carlile, NSW teammates Henry McCarthy, Alexander Siau and Hannah Jamieson, with a cracking third leg to win gold with SLC Aquadot, NSW second (Jackson Swingler, Georgia Pyper, Sybella Carney and Kobi Mead) and Rocky City, QLD (Mackenzie Wyeth, Jordan Hodgetts, Isla Burridge, Jake Hodgetts) third.
Sunday marks the final day of racing at the Australian Open Water Championships with all age groups, including open and multi-class, contesting the course over five kilometres.
Lee will attempt to win his third gold medal at these Nationals in the men’s open 5km after winning the open men’s 10km and anchoring his North Coast, WA team to gold in the Mixed 4×1.25km open relay on Day Two.
The women’s 5km field will see Johnson in line for her third gold medal against Japan’s Sachika Kajimotoand Carlile’s Tayla Martin.
2026 Australian Open Water Championships, Results, Day 3:
1.Moesha Johnson (Miami), QLD) 6:03.20
2. Sienna Deurloo (Toowoomba Grammar) , 6:09.00
3. Olivia Galea (Chandler) 6:15.50
1. Sam Short (Rackley, QLD) 5:36.00
2. Tommy Raymond (Kawana Waters, QLD) 5:37.90
3. Kyle Lee (North Coast, WA) 5:42.90
1. Carlile (Henry McCarthy, Alexander Siau, Mia Hoo, Hannah Jamieson), 1:12:26.00
2. SLC Aquadot (Jackson Swingler, Georgia Pyper, Sybella Carney, Kobi Mead), 1:14:22.10
3. Rocky City, (Mackenzie Wyeth, Jordan Hodgetts, Isla Burridge, Jack Hodgetts), 1:14:37.30
